Community Foundation Awards More than $550,000 in Grants

YOUNGSTOWN/WARREN, Ohio ­– The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley and its supporting organizations awarded $557,800 in grants as part of the second-quarter grant cycle.

In total, the Community Foundation’s general grant program awarded $164,000 to 22 organizations in the second quarter, while the Young Philanthropist Fund – led by Mahoning Valley Young Professionals – awarded $5,000 to Potential Development School for Students with Autism.

The Community Foundation’s three supporting organizations combined to award $388,800 in grants. The Western Reserve Health Foundation awarded seven grants for $253,400 to projects aimed at improving health in Mahoning County, while the Trumbull Memorial Health Foundation awarded four grants for $63,400 to health-focused projects in Trumbull County. The William Swanston Charitable Fund, which focuses on community projects supporting the Valley’s kids, awarded four grants for $72,000.

“We’re excited to be able to support so many impactful projects and organizations in the Valley,” says Shari Harrell, president of the Community Foundation. “This work is much-needed and vital to building a Mahoning Valley that’s the best it can be for all of us.”

The Community Foundation and its supporting organizations have quarterly deadlines for grant applications. The final grant application deadline for the Community Foundation general grants, the Swanston Charitable Fund, Western Reserve Health Foundation and Trumbull Memorial Health Foundation is Oct. 1. For more information on grant opportunities, visit CFMV.org/apply.

A full list of the second-quarter grants is available below. As part of our commitment to working to minimize the impact of racial inequity in the Mahoning Valley, the Community Foundation would like to draw special attention to organizations led by people of color. Such grant recipients are marked in bold.

Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley

  • ACTION – $10,000 for annual operating support. Founded in 1999, ACTION is a coalition of faith leaders from across the Valley working to improve communities and eliminate poverty, racism and injustice.
  • Alta Care Group – $17,500 for an expansion of the organization’s Belmont Avenue offices. Alta will add 2,500 square feet of space to its space along Belmont, allowing for the addition of two group rooms and a large activity room.
  • Building Neighborhoods of Youngstown – $10,000 for annual operating support. The organization provides home repairs to low- and moderate-income residents of Youngstown.
  • Fairhaven Foundation – $7,500 for annual operating support. The Fairhaven Foundation works closely with the Trumbull County Board of Developmental Disabilities to ensure the roughly 1,100 people eligible for services in the county have the support they need.
  • Friends of 91.3 – $3,000 for annual operating support for 91.3 The Summit. The Akron-based radio station is an FCC-recognized noncommercial education station, providing educational programming in addition to its commercial-free rock programming.
  • Grace AME Church Nursing Guild – $6,000 for the organization’s annual Health Fair on the Square event. A part of Grace African Methodist Episcopal Church in Warren, the Nursing Guild provides health prevention programs to the communities that are historically underserved by other health-care systems.
  • Habitat for Humanity Mahoning Valley – $10,000 for home rehabilitation in Youngstown’s Landsdowne neighborhood on the East Side.
  • Home for Good Re-Entry Resource Referral Center – $10,000 for annual operating support. Based in Youngstown, Home for Good works to ensure that people who’ve been incarcerated have the support and tools they need to re-establish their lives outside of jail and prison.
  • Oak Hill Collaborative – $5,000 for annual operating support. Oak Hill Collaborative provides several community resources, including a small business incubator, a public makerspace, low-cost internet and technology, and office space for several community organizations.
  • Ohio Living Home Health and Hospice – $3,000 for the Vivo Center, a joint project between Ohio Living and the gerontology program at Youngstown State. The partnership offers Ohio Living residents activities, while providing students with mentorship and professional development.
  • Opera Western Reserve – $7,000 to support the production of “La Boheme,” to be performed Nov. 11 at Stambaugh Auditorium. The performance will include participants in Opera Western Reserve’s Emerging Artists program.
  • Potential Development – $7,500 for the construction of an outdoor fitness space for high school students. The space will include workout equipment such as angled balance beams, a squat press machine and machines for chest and back presses.
  • Stambaugh Auditorium – $10,000 for the Children’s Summer Arts Camp. The weeklong program will teach students about many aspects of acting as they put together their own performance of “Little Red Riding Hood.”
  • BRITE Energy Innovators – $5,000 for expanding operations capacity. Funding will primarily support entrepreneurial services as over the past year, the downtown Warren incubator has seen demand for one-on-one mentorship increase more than 400%.
  • The English Center of Youngstown – $5,000 for annual operating support. From its office near Wick Park, The English Center provides free language classes to people moving to the Valley from other countries, with a focus on skills that will help them live and thrive in their communities.
  • The Ryan Giambattista Helms Foundation – $7,500 for art therapy programming. With this funding, the Helms Foundation will be able to hire a full-time art therapist supervisor/program coordinator, as well as three part-time certified therapists.
  • The Salvation Army – $5,000 for emergency social services. Such services include The Salvation Army’s food pantry, hot meals program, help paying utility bills and free clothes, diapers and household necessities.
  • The Youngstown Playhouse – $5,000 for its youth theater program. Started in 1959, the program has allowed kids ages 5 to 18 to put on fully staged productions free of charge.
  • YMCA of Youngstown – $5,000 for a partnership with Potential Development. The funding will allow students from the school to take part in the Y’s Gym and Swim Program at the Central YMCA in downtown Youngstown.
  • Youngstown Cityscape ­– $5,000 for annual operating support. Best known for its annual Streetscape project in downtown Youngstown, Cityscape also supports beautification efforts at local businesses and institutions across the city.
  • YSU Campus Recreation – $10,000 for the Mahoning Valley Outside 365 program. The campaign, done in tandem with the Healthy Community Partnership, works to build awareness of the city’s parks and greenspaces and encourages residents to be active outdoors.
  • YWCA Mahoning Valley – $10,000 for Y Girls STEAM Summer Camps. The annual summer program hosts two camps – one each in Youngstown and Warren – that provide middle school girls with activities focused on science, technology, engineering, art and math, to help them explore potential career fields.

Western Reserve Health Foundation

  • Boulevard Park Block Watch – $35,000 for the Clarencedale Pocket Park. This park will convert two vacant properties to a usable community space that includes a playground and a blueberry patch.
  • Friends of 91.3 – $5,000 for the Rock+Recovery program. Aired nightly, the radio program and weekly podcast provides uplifting music, testimonials from people working through recovery and information on community resources.
  • Mahoning County Public Health – $40,000 for the Managing Asthma Triggers at Home Pediatric Asthma program. A joint effort between the county health department, Youngstown City Health District and Akron Children’s Hospital, the program aims to work with families to bridge the gap between doctors’ office and the home in order to reduce emergency room visits because of asthma.
  • The Carter House – $25,000 for transitional and supportive housing. The nonprofit works with 40 clients, providing them with not only a place to live during recovery, but also resources and training to help them toward independent living.
  • The Ryan Giambattista Helms Foundation – $25,000 for art therapy programming.
  • Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. – $100,000 for the Glenwood Fresh Market. YNDC’s market provides year-round access to fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods, as well as cooking demonstrations, health screenings and nutrition education.
  • YSU Campus Recreation – $23,400 for the Mahoning Valley Outside 365 program.

William Swanston Charitable Fund

  • Alta Care Group – $20,000 for expansion of its Belmont Avenue offices.
  • The Ryan Giambattista Helms Foundation – $15,000 for art therapy programming.
  • Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership – $17,000 for summer programs kids ages 11 to 14 that support active living and healthy eating.
  • Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. – $20,000 for the Glenwood Fresh Market.

Trumbull Memorial Health Foundation

  • Fairhaven Foundation – $10,000 for the backpack program, which provides children in Trumbull County with a weekend supply of food. Student volunteers from Fairhaven’s Community Integrated Training for Employment pack and deliver the backpacks to local schools.
  • Friends of 91.3 – $5,000 for the Rock+Recovery program.
  • The Ryan Giambattista Helms Foundation – $25,000 for art therapy programming.
  • YSU Campus Recreation – $23,400 for the Mahoning Valley Outside 365 program.

The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley strives to be a leader and advocate for strategic philanthropy by partnering with donors to anchor a permanent and growing endowment and making investments in the Mahoning Valley that improve the quality of life for all residents. The Community Foundation is the only local foundation with certification from the Community Foundation National Standards Board.